John Otway

 JOHN OTWAY

Musician Pub 16th May 2024

What a wonderful joyful night at the The Musician Pub on Thursday night with the return of a genuine english barmpot, John Otway with his talented roadie, Deadly.

If you've seen Otway before you will know exactly what to expect, you will probably know the set!... but it is still unique and wonderful... and hilarious.

The man is a genuine pop star with a couple of big hits to his name... both of which feature in the set.

Early on he produced the legendary double guitar which calls for a bit of left hand playing as well as right handed...

John does predominantly his own material all of which is uniquely Otway and hugely worth hearing... but he does include a number of covers... early on he delivered a frenetic version of "The Alamo"... which in America he delights in introducing as an American Civil War song so at the end when eventually the audience tell him it isn't a civil war song he can say "I know":

The first half ends with the classic "Body Talk"... in which he places a drum device in each pocket and dances energetically while slapping himself to provide the rhythm with the drum sounds while adding music with a theremin. One of the drum pad was disabled so his left buttock was played by Deadly with a spare drum pad.

The second half started with a Bob Dylan impression... very authentic except that the song was "I Will Survive" played and sung in pure Dylan style... and ending with a Dylanesque harmonica played by Deadly.

Other innovations included the use of two coat hangers taped together to form a microphone holder akin to the normal harmonica rack

"House of the Rising Sun" of course included the usual heckles from the audience... "There is a house in... " "Where is it John"

The whole show was a real delight.. John is a larger than life eccentric and Deadly adds some hilarious pithy

comments/criticisms from the side.

The set ended with a couple of encores including "Head Butt" where John rants at a number of issues before head-butting the microphone...

This is always a hilarious hugely entertaining evening with a real eccentric performer. John (with Deadly) must be the most genuinely different and entertaining performer on the circuit... this show is a breath of real joy and a superb evening out. I absolutely love an Otway gig!!

Here's to the next one...

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